DRUG PLANTS 



yiz 



Croton oil is ainother fatty oil, secured from the seeds of a 

 small tree or shrub cultivated in Ceylon and India, though 

 native in larger areas of southeastern Asia. Indian natives use the 

 crushed flowers and leaves as a fish poison, but the oil extracted 

 from Croton seeds is used in medicine as a very powerful purga- 

 tive. It is one of the most powerful of such drugs known, and 

 should be used only upon the advice of a physician, since an over- 

 dose could be a violent, and probably fatal, poison. 



The Nux Vomica tree of southeastern Asia and Australia, 

 produces hard, bitter seeds yielding the very valuable drugs 



Fig. 241. — Hop plants are climbing perennials producing a bitter narcotic 



substance. 



STRYCHNINE and BRUCINE. In very small doses, strychnine is a 

 stimulant and tonic, and is used also in the treatment of nervous 

 and paralytic disorders. In large doses, it is a virulent and quick- 

 killing poison, and is widely used in the control of rodents and 

 predatory animals such as coyotes and wolves. 



Psyllium seed, from a European species of plantain known 

 as fleawort, constitutes a mild laxative. Used locally in Europe 

 for about fifty years, it has arisen as an important drug in the 

 world's markets within the last few years. The seed may be eaten 

 with breakfast foods or taken with water giving an eff*ect com- 

 parable to that of agar and mineral oil — helpful in overcoming 

 conditions of constipation resulting from the increasing inactivity 



